The CSS ALBEMARLE was designed by
Chief Constructor John L Porter, CSN, and built in the
spring of 1864 by Gilbert Elliott at Edward`s Ferry on
the Roanoke River. She was 122 feet long, 45 feet beam
and her draft 8 feet. Her planking was 4 inches thick
over 8x10 inch frames. The central shield was 60 feet
long and covered by two layers of 2 inch iron plating.
Her armament consisted of two 8 inch guns, one forward,
the other aft, behind iron shutters. She had two engines
of 200hp each.

In April 1864 the newly
constructed Albemarle, under the command of Capt. J.S.
Cooke, was ordered to proceed down river from Hamilton
to Plymouth to clear the river of federal vessels so
that General Hoke`s troops could storm the forts. She
anchored about three miles above the town and the pilot,
John Lock, set off with two seamen in a small boat to
take soundings. They found that the river was high and
that there was 10 feet of water over the obstructions
that the federal forces had placed in the Thoroughfare
Gap. On hearing the news Capt. Cooke immediately ordered
steam and, by keeping in the middle of the stream, they
passed safely over the obstructions. Their armour
protected them from the guns of two forts, Warren`s Neck
and Boyle`s Mill, but then they discovered a new hazard
coming up the river towards them. Two federal steamers,
the Miami and the Southfield, lashed together with spars
and chains were in the middle of the river, intending to
pass on either side of Albemarle which would put her at
their mercy. Capt. Cooke ran close in to the southern
shore then turned to ram the Southfield amidships.
Albemarle was going at full speed with the assistance of
the current and she drove the federal ship straight to
the bottom, taking part of her crew with her. The bow of
Albemarle was pulled under water and she too would have
sunk if Southfield had not rolled over when she hit the
bottom and released the ram. Captain Flusser of Miami
was killed when a shell he fired at point-blank range
rebounded off Albemarle`s armour and exploded on Miami.
Despite the death of their captain, Miami`s crew tried
to board the Confederate ship but were driven back by
musket fire and then used her speed to avoid the ram and
escaped into Albemarle Sound.

Now that the river was
clear of federal ships General Hoke attacked and
carried, with heavy losses to the confederate troops,
the defenses of the town, assisted by Albermarle who
fired her two guns into the forts all day.
On 5 May battle was joined between Albemarle and a
captured steamer, Bombshell, which were escorting the
steamer Cotton Plant, laden with troops, down the
Roanoke, and four federal side-paddlers Mattabesett,
Sassacus, Wyalusing and Miami coming up Albemarle Sound.
Albemarle opened fire first from her bow gun, the shells
wounding six men on one of the two 100-pounder Parrott
rifles on the Mattabesett, then attempted to ram her.
The paddler managed to round the ram`s bow, closely
followed by the Sassacus which opened up a broadside of
solid 9" and 100-pound shot, all of which bounced off
the sloping armour of the confederate ship. The
Bombshell was a softer target and was hulled by each
shot from Sassucus`s broadside. She surrendered, and was
ordered to pull out of the action and anchor. When he
found that he had Albemarle broadside on at a range of
about 400 yards, Lieut. Cdr. Roe of Sassucus decided to
ram her and called for all the steam that could be
raised. The paddler struck the iron hull full and square
ripping away the timbers off her own bow and twisting
off the bronze beak with which she was shod. The two
ships remained entangled together but the crew of
Albemarle recovered quickly and fired two shells into
the enemy hull which was almost touching the end of the
gun barrel. One punctured the boilers, still full of
steam, sending jets of steam and boiling water through
the ship, scalding 13 of her crew. The other federal
ships remained stopped while Sassucis broke away and
drifted out of range. Miami attempted to use her torpedo
and enmesh the ram`s propeller with a seine net but
without success and Albemarle steamed back into the
Roanoke where she was moored at Plymouth.

By the autumn the Federal Government decided
something must be done about the situation in North
Carolina and the navy discussed a number of plans for
destroying Albemarle. Commander William Cushing USN was
authorized to find two small steam launches to be fitted
out as spar-torpedo-boats. He found two suitable 30 foot
picket boats building in New York; and he fitted them
with a torpedo, invented by Engineer Lay of the USN,
which was mounted at the end of a fourteen foot spar. A
12-pounder howitzer was mounted in the bow. One of the
boats was lost on the way to Norfolk, but he took the
other, with a crew of seven officers and men, to the
federal ships waiting in the Sound off the mouth of the
Roanoke.

The torpedo contained an air chamber which allowed it
to float in a vertical position. Pulling out the pin let
a grape ball fall on a percussion cap which ignited the
powder charge in the lower chamber. The device, at the
end of a 14 ft. spar was released by pulling a lanyard
when it was under the enemy hull.

On the night of 27 October they entered the river
with a small cutter in tow. The men in this had the job
of surprising the picket which had been placed on a
schooner alongside the wreck of the Southfield, a mile
below Plymouth, and prevent them firing warning rockets.
In the event they went past unchallenged and Cdr.
Cushing decided to use his 22 men to board the ram and
try and take her out into the stream, but as they
approached the wharf they were hailed and this was
quickly followed by heavy fire from the ship and the
shore. By the light of a fire on the bank Cushing now
discovered that Albemarle was protected against torpedo
attack by a boom of floating logs; however the logs,
after long immersion in the water, were covered in slime
and the picket boat easily rode over them. Cushing stood
in the bow and pulled the detaching and firing lines to
explode the torpedo under the ram`s hull at the same
time as a canister of grape struck the boat throwing
them all into the freezing water. He called on his men
to save themselves, stripped off his uniform, and swam
out into the stream while boats searched for survivors.
He was not seen and eventually, finding mud beneath his
feet, he lay exhausted, half out of the water until
daylight. The sun brought welcome warmth and he found
that he was on the outskirts of Plymouth under the
parapet of a fort. In the afternoon he managed to board
a small skiff and paddled down the river until he
reached the safety of a federal picket vessel.

His
attack had been successful. Albemarle had "a hole in her
bottom big enough to drive a wagon in." She was resting
in eight feet of water with her upper works above the
surface. Her captain, Alexander Wharley CSN, who had
been appointed to her about a month earlier, salvaged
the guns and shells and used them to defend the town
against the subsequent federal attack until he could see
further resistance was fruitless.

A smaller-scale replica
of the Ram Albemarle sits on the water behind the Port
o' Plymouth
Museum
in Plymouth, NC. In 2005 the
The History Channel filmed a documentary in Plymouth
titled "The Most Daring Mission of the Civil War"
describing Lt. William Barker Cushing's successful raid
on the C.S.S. Albemarle.

In December of 2008,
an incredible find related to the C.S.S. Albemarle
was made at Plymouth! A 6.4" Mullane (Tennessee Sabot)
Shell was discovered. The shell had not detonated and
had lain undisturbed for 145 years. It is the only known
intact shell fired from the Brook rifled guns on the ram
Albemarle. The shell has been disarmed and conserverd
and will be dedicated at the 2009 Living History Weekend
in Plymouth.